Observations and reflections from Tibor R. Machan, professor of business ethics and writer on general and political philosophy, now teaching at Chapman University in Orange, CA.

Thursday, May 25, 2006

Column on Local Assaults on Property Rights

Local Assaults on Property Rights

Tibor R. Machan

Two reports in the local free monthly newspaper, the Foothills Sentry,May 9, 2006, are very upsetting to anyone who wants to live in a freesociety instead of a dictatorship of bureaucrats. I am sure they arerepresentative of many other parts of the country, not to mention theworld.

First, there is "Trouble is fomenting in the tight community of Old TownOrange." It chronicles the way Orange City?s Design Review Committee hasbeen arbitrarily harassing residents by imposing utterly vague rules onlythe members of the Committee understand. (Their instructions arenotoriously unspecific and their rulings routinely violate the principle"equality under the law" by favoring some while ruling against others.)

This is all in the name of historical preservation, an idea that turnsout to be very selectively implemented. After all, one element of mostgovernment regulations is to impose technologically up to date standardson those building or remodeling their homes. Historically preservedbuildings must conform but not quite. They must, in short, look old but benew.

The members of the Design Review Committee, mostly local architects wholove to lord it over Orange City?s residents, really don?t seem to have aclue as to what they are doing, for whom, why, etc. In justice, ofcourse, they ought to buy the buildings they wish to control and notbother others unless they are willing to foot the cost of their so calledhistorical preservation.

Second, there is the disgusting news in this issue of the FoothillsSentinel about how the Silverado Ranch Project?involving the building of12 upscale homes (that might have invigorated the canyon community, suchas helping the little grocery store and the restaurant profitable) in thecanyon where I live?has been crushed by a coalition of various landgrabbers, such as the Rural Canyon Conservation Fund and judges who haveno respect for private property rights at all. Their excuse is to preservethe Arroyo Toad, which is quite ridiculous.

That toad may well be endangered but so what? Many living beings come andgo in the history of the earth and the fact that people might hasten thedisappearance of some is no excuse to violate their private propertyrights. These folks are simply trying to live in peace or make a living bydeveloping land they purchased decades ago without any warning that thelocal bureaucrats will be coming after it when they please to do so. Whatthese folks don?t get is that human beings come before toads in the scaleof what's important! So if one wants to help the toads, one needs to payfor this and not sacrifice other people to this ridiculous cause. TheRural Canyon Conservation Fund ought to live up to its proclaimedpriorities and come up with the money to pay those whose land theorganization has helped render useless to its by now only nominal owners.

Alas, America is no longer the land of the free, that's for sure, if ithas ever been. It is now the land of the outdoor health club fanatics whouse any concocted reason for intruding on other people's lives andbusinesses. The one thing none of them will do is pay for what theysupport.

In a free country, if one is interested in preserving some region, onemust come up with the funds to buy it and not sic politicians,bureaucrats, and judges on those who own it. Such taking is immoral andshould be illegal. But our legal system now makes it possible for thesebarbarians to just put in a claim in the name of a toad and have the landall to themselves to do with as they want.

It is not often that I lose my cool but with this bunch I have had it upto here. I have met quite a few of them, even debated one who is with thelocal Sierra Club, and I know they all entertain the preposterous notionthat they can speak for ?the public.? Yet, of course, what they are doingis ruining the lives of many members of the public, so clearly they aredelusional about speaking for ?the public.?

If these folks had an ounce of honesty about them, they would dig intotheir own pockets and further supplement it from voluntary contributionsthey themselves would solicit and thus obtain the homes and lands theywant to control. No. Instead, they are depriving others of useful land sothey can have their precious toad or whatever preserved, never mind whathappens to the human beings whose lives have been ruined this way.

Welcome to the land of Thomas Hobbes, where all are at war with all andthe bullies win.